CSC Blog

Interesting stuff….I mentioned in a blog a few weeks ago that a group of industry execs got together during the Long Beach Moto Show to commiserate on the state of the industry and devise a plan on how to bump sales north again.  To give you an idea of what’s been happening, here’s what the Motorcycle Industry Council shows as the sales figures for the last few decades…

The reason for this blog is the above group’s report is available for free, and you can download it here:  https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/SdhSlwwnDH

The above reports are an interesting read.   The group and the above report(s) got some of it right, I think (especially the part about the dealers), but I also think they missed a big part of why new bike sales are down:  Most bikes today are just too damn expensive (except ours, of course).

Yep, there are.  If you’re thinking about going, we’ve got four spots open right now, and there’s no time like the present to make the decision to go.   Hey, you can buy a brand new, fully equipped adventure touring motorcycle for just $3495, and have the adventure of a lifetime next March when you ride Baja with us!   Are you in?

At the end of the trail, most folks don’t regret the things they did in life…they regret the things they didn’t do!  Trust me on this…you need to ride Baja!

I haven’t posted a gun blog in a while and I finished my Ruger 375 this morning, so all the planets came into alignment for a bit of CSC blog gun art…

This rifle is based on a Howa 1500 barreled action and a walnut blank from Richard’s up in the Valley, and like I said above, it’s chambered in the very potent Ruger 375 cartridge.   I’m a sucker for extra-fancy English walnut like you see in these photos, and I love the big bores.

I had this project on the back burner for  way too long.  Like they say, though, life is what happens while you are making plans, and for me, from the time I bought the barreled action and the walnut blank it’s been five motorcycle rides in Baja, two across the American West, one in Colombia, one across China, four books, and lots of biz travel in China, Thailand, Singapore, Turkey, Canada, and a few other places.   Now all I’ve got to do is wait for the scope rings to arrive from Amazon, mount the Leupold scope destined to adorn this beautiful combination of blue steel and walnut, reload a few elephant stomper cartridges, and get to the range.  I’ll bet this puppy is a tack driver.  We’ll see…

We work on super-exotic Harleys here at CSC all the time, including this one with air suspension, lots of chrome and billet, and custom paint that is beyond incredible!

This is cool stuff, folks.   It’s grand fun just taking photos of art like this.

You math types and engineers will get it…Joe times Joe, in this case my good buddy Joe Martin and yours truly.  We had a great dinner at the California Grill tonight…

Joe rode his RX3 down from Washington.   He’s been tearing up the So Cal deserts with our good buddy Matt Norton, and we met for dinner this evening.   Joe is a high mileage guy with his RX3, and he rode with us on the 2nd Annual CSC Baja Run.   Joe is headed up to Alaska on his orange bike next summer (they are the fastest ones, you know) and like you, I’m looking forward to following the adventure!

Things are definitely popping here.  For starters, Moto Baja! is selling well.   We’ll have more copies here at CSC in another few days, and the first reviews are popping up on the Amazon.com page.   It’s cool, because every time I write a new book, the older books’ sales tick up (5000 Miles At 8000 RPM, Moto Colombia!, and Riding China).  These make great Christmas gifts and there’s still time to get them prior to Christmas.

They make great gifts, folks!

Our next popular item is our CSC Meetup ride on 6 January.   We’re visiting the world-class Owen Collection, and it looks like we’ll have more people on this ride than on any previous one.  This is a superb collection of vintage ’60s and ’70s offroad racing motorcycles.  I wrote a feature about the Owen Collection for Motorcycle Classics magazine and it will appear in the next edition of that fine publication.  If you want to ride with us to see the Owen Collection, here’s the link to sign up!

A glorious Beezer at the Owen Collection!

On to our next extremely popular item: Our CSC Baja 2018 ride is nearly full.   Yep, the 15 slots we have for this ride went very quickly.  I guess the word is getting out on the CSC Baja adventure rides!  I almost said we’re sold out, except there’s no charge to participate on this glorious 8-day expedition (no charge from us, that is; you’ll still have to pay your own expenses as we go).   We have one opening left, and then, that’s it for the CSC 2018 Baja Run.   (Jim S, when you read this please give us a call; your email isn’t working and I don’t have a phone number for you).   If you want to know what the ride is going to be like, well hey, buy yourself a copy of Moto Baja!

One of the slides from a previous pre-ride Baja briefing.

And one more popular item…the 2018 TT250s are going to be here in early January!  Yep, the bike that is making motorcycling affordable again will be in stock next month.   It’s only $2195, and there’s no time like right now to get your oar in the water with a deposit on one of these great motorcycles!  I love my gorgeous black TT250, and I’m headed up into the mountains on it later today!

Making motorcycling affordable again!

It’s official:  Our January CSC ride will be to the Owen Collection in Walnut, California!   This is a rare opportunity to view a private collection of rare 1960s motocrossers and flat track motorcycles, a collection that is not open to the public!   I’ll be posting the ride on our CSC Meetup.com page in the near future, so if you’re going, please make sure to sign up there.

Our good buddy Matt recently posted this video of the 2017 CSC Baja run, and I thought I would share it with you here…

Nicely done, Matt, and I appreciate the plug for Moto Baja! in your comments!   We’re looking forward to riding with you again.

Not a bad showing at all for our RXR in the comparison to Kawasaki and Honda, as reviewed by the gurus at Motorcycle.com!

I like this one…